Top prospect Adam Sykora faces brutal absence after crushing preseason hit

The Rangers' preseason opener against the Devils on Monday was supposed to be a routine early look at the roster. But the biggest story out of Newark had nothing to do with the final score.

Forward Adam Sykora, one of New York's most promising young prospects, will be sidelined for four to five months after suffering a lower-body injury during the first period of the exhibition matchup at Prudential Center.

The 22-year-old was skating around the corner when he absorbed a punishing hit from Devils defenseman Mikael Diotte. Sykora fell awkwardly into the boards and initially tried to crawl his way toward the bench before teammates Anton Blidh and Liam Greentree, along with a trainer, helped him off the ice.

The timeline means Sykora will likely miss the entire first half of the 2026-27 season, at minimum, with a absence of four or five months projected for him.

It is a devastating setback for a player who had been building real momentum within the organization. The second-round pick from the 2023 draft got his first extended look at the NHL level late last season, registering three goals and four points across 11 games with the Blueshirts.

He also showed steady growth in the AHL, posting 12 goals and 29 points in 62 games with Hartford last season.

Sykora had been skating with the Rangers' AHL group at the start of training camp, but he had established himself as a strong candidate for a call-up if the big club dealt with injuries during the regular season. That safety net is now gone for at least the opening months of the campaign.

The Rangers will move forward without one of the young forwards they had been counting on as organizational depth. Sykora's recovery timeline puts a potential return sometime in late January or February, meaning he will need to rebuild his conditioning and rhythm all over again before he can factor into the team's plans.